What Would Harvey Do
by Alice in Webland
Summary: A post-Rewind legal drama. Harvey gets Donna back and uncovers Hardman's nasty plans. It was meant to be an alteration...
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: Hi Suitors! This is my first post here, I hope you'll enjoy it. English is a foreign language to me. Any reviews that would help me improve my written English are strongly appreciated. It may become a multi-chapter if I get positive reviews._  
_Disclaimer: I own nothing._

1.

_[music: Wish You Were Here by Lee Field & The Expressions]_

There he was, sitting at his desk, with all those memories crowding his mind and leading his stare into the distance and at that empty desk beyond the glass wall.  
All of a sudden he felt dizzy. A void that couldn't be filled, no more a big shot of the best whiskey could compensate his father's loss.  
The well had long run dry.  
All those office noises in the background, nothing really mattered anymore.  
It came up gently, sneaking out the backdoor of his unconscious.  
But it was as heavy as lead: he had to get Donna back.

Wandering in a trackless desert too long is no good thing: one would do anything for a tiny drink of water. And no matter how long he had been sitting at the grown-ups table, Harvey was no exception. He had to be patient. Okay, he was the best closer in Manhattan, but feelings... Well, feelings weren't exactly his area, let alone whatever the hell was making him dizzy and confused and he still hadn't the guts to name. What a wuss! How could he ever have been so blind? How could she still be there for him? Again he had to be patient.  
He had to play it right. He'd better win this: it was his ultimate chance. Close it Harvey, or die.

.::.

"Hey!"  
She was just glaring at him in front of her condo door, no words, a bad sign. She stood still a couple of seconds and then turned right, and started walking in the opposite direction.  
"Donna!"  
No answer.  
"Donna!" he called out again, picking up her pace, "Please..."  
She stopped and kept on staring at him.  
"I had no choice. All I want is to get you back"  
"You had no choice?" she asked scathingly, raising her left eyebrow.  
"And I'm getting you back."  
"You're getting me back? ... How can you be so sure that's what I want now?"  
"It is," he added quietly.  
"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you: as you have come to know in twelve years, this beautiful woman still makes a perfect legal secretary and has already been hired by one of the best firms in the city which, by the way, is not yours. Now, if you excuse me, I have to be at work by 7:30. - She started walking again.  
"Please, Donna..." urged Harvey staying her pace.  
She stopped, "Please, please, please... I don't want to please you anymore, Harvey!"  
"Then don't. But let me just tell you I feel so sorry, Donna. I feel sorry you shredded that memo. I'm sorry you didn't come to me in the first place. You wanted to protect me, and that's a thing I didn't ask for but... believe me, it's the only one in this damn muddle I'm not sorry about. You wanted to protect me because you care and... well... I... I care that you care," he grinned to his last sentence. He could do better, he thought.  
Her widening eyes steadily in his, a question unasked. A question both of them didn't want to address before and he'd better find the guts to answer soon. No, not there, not now, just... soon. She was still too resentful and he had to stay focused to close this. Focus Harvey!  
"Look Donna, I did fight for you, and I'm still fighting for you right now. I'm not Bruce Wayne, I can't win all the battles, but you bet I'm gonna win the war."  
"Plus... there's still something that doesn't fit into place..." he added after a couple of seconds.  
"What?"  
"That document. You not remembering it ever crossed your desk. Sarah Layton, the CM Quality Control Manager, telling me she didn't put anything in writing. That dickhead of Tanner... he has done it before, I mean he has already planted evidence. And this time he was highly motivated: remember I crashed him in the Emerson Petroleum class action? And, for the records, I also punched him in the face during my deposition last week..."  
"You punched him in the face..."  
"You see, I'm not the Harvey you used to know... hell knows what happened to that smart guy..." he smiled at her.  
"I don't swallow it, that's exactly the douchebag I used to know..."  
"Well, maybe you're right or maybe... he's just grown bigger balls," he replied with a smirk.  
She couldn't help an undetectable smile and was forced to look away from him.  
"That dick brought up my mother, you know..." he added, "point is he knows a hell of a lot of things about me. It looks like someone took good care in prepping him. Now I'm getting a close look into his business."  
She was silent again.  
"Donna..."  
"Well, here I am, Harvey... all the best with your investigations," she said while pushing the revolving door of a dark granite building at 10W 57th Street.  
She was gone again.

But at least he was able to steal that elusive smile and that meant only one thing: she remembered that silly conversation they had when he was promoted junior partner as much as he had secured it in his mind:  
"Finally an office big enough for your balls."  
"Okay, I'm not touching that one."  
"You would if you had bigger balls."  
It just took him only five years to touch it, or probably twelve... who'd count them anyway?

.::.

[_music: Bright Lights by Gary Clark Jr._]

Donna woke up to the beeping of her mobile phone: a message. A shrub of messy red hair re-emerged from a white pillow. She had been literally shattered by a night-long epic battle against a host of fully armored nightmares. She wearily stretched her left arm out of the blankets and up the bedside table to grab the phone. It took her a couple of seconds to focus the name blinking on the display.  
Harvey.  
-Good morning, let's have dinner. I've got important news.- Fuck your dinner, Harvey. She pressed vehemently the delete button, while sinking her head back into the pillow.  
Her alarm clock would have gone off in five minutes.

She started thinking about the previous morning. He was handsome and he knew how to deal with it. See, that was the problem with him. That and the hard fact he was an asshole. Not a call in weeks, and then he had appeared out of nowhere to get her to do the trial run. She knew they had eventually settled, her attorney told her. And the previous morning... that was something she hadn't been expecting. By the way, she shouldn't have wasted those five minutes thinking about a man that didn't respect her enough to fire her himself.  
Another beep. Harvey again.  
-Just something I forgot to tell you yesterday: it had to be Jessica. You know I could have never stayed afloat in _your_ pool of tears.-  
Jeez! What was he, some kind of mind reader? She thought glowering at her phone display.  
A long buzz of the alarm clock suddenly broke the silence: time for her Saturday jog in Central Park.

She didn't realize a man was jogging at her side until she turned left and her eyes bumped into his face. She almost startled: there it was, that cocky smile she knew all too well.  
Harvey said something and she pointed at one of her earphones indicating she couldn't hear. He stared at her cross-eyed while jogging along. She pulled out her left earphone.  
"How comes you haven't replied to my message yet?" he asked.  
"You won't get a reply."  
"Waaph!" he buzzed.  
He was wearing a blue sweatsuit. She was wearing a blue sweatsuit. The perfect match.  
"Donna, you can't stand me up. I've already reserved the best table at the best spot here in Manhattan. No frills: just you, me and the most stunning view of the city skyline you can get... from my apartment. There's something I need to show you."  
"What? Your butterfly collection?"  
"Oh, I've even got major butterflies right now if you're so interested in them," he replied teasingly.  
"Uh, no thanks: they'd fly away at the first Summer storm anyway."  
"That's strange... I was under the impression that they were here to stay," he said and then added "Listen, Mike is helping me: we've dug out something. All the documents are in my apartment, I couldn't risk somebody in the office, particularly Daniel, suspecting we are still working at the CM case. I need you to see what we've got and help me connect the dots. You're the only person I can trust who worked at the case with me four years ago. What we've found indicates you didn't fail to turn over that memo, Donna. You didn't because there has never been a memo."  
She stopped and plonked herself down on one of the green benches along the path.  
"Okay, I'm listening," she uttered still out of breath.  
"Ray is going to pick you up at your place, be ready at 8:30 this evening," he said, sitting down at her side and wiping away the sweat from his face with his forearm.  
_[music: I'm Still Here by Tom Waits]_  
She turned serious and locked her eyes in his "Why are you doing all this, Harvey?"  
He smiled directing his look straight ahead into the distance "Because it's simpler than what you'd tell to a trial run jury."  
He turned to her again beaming like a baby. She was holding his gaze, unable to stop a silly smile lighting up her face.  
He kissed her.  
And, you know, some kisses may well taste like eternity.  
Then he whispered, his forehead skimming hers "See? It's because you love me."  
"Wait a sec... it's you, you love me," she muttered regaining control over herself.  
"You bet," he said quietly, his heart beating like he had never felt it before.  
"Mmmmph!" he groaned slowly pushing himself away from the bench as if he was glued to it.  
"8:30, be on time! ...Later!" he said finally standing up and turning back to his jog along the Turtle Pond on his way home.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Hi Suitors! This is my second post here, I hope you'll enjoy it. English is a foreign language to me. Any reviews that would help me improve my written English are strongly appreciated. The 1968 Mustang Fastback Harvey's driving in episode 103 is probably a tribute to the movie "Bullit" with Steve McQueen and this new chapter was inspired by it.  
Disclaimer: I own nothing.

2.

[_Music: The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) - Moments of Love_]

"_That's not Ray's car_," thought Donna admiring a black Mustang Fastback parked in front of her condo. And that charming man, resting his back against it, was definitely not Ray.  
"Grand Pris, you won a round, Mr. Crown. That's your only round so far... Where should we go to celebrate?" she asked with a velvety voice staring at him seductively.  
"How about dinner at my home?" asked Harvey regaining his breath.  
"Home to meet mother?"  
"No mother, no more wife. Just a big empty place, three floors and an elevator," he replied holding the door open for her and taking a good look at her plunging neckline while she was sitting down.  
"Let's hope dinner hasn't been waiting for us since 1968," she said smiling while he was setting the car in motion.  
"You have just embodied a perfect Vicki, don't waste it now..."  
"Uh, and you are more talented than Steve McQueen, I'll give you that... in chatting up the hottest girls in New York."  
He gave her a scolding look, promptly countered by her smirk. Their car roared past a knot of shadowy figures while the night was falling on the city.

She had been at his place only once. Her parents had stopped over in New York for a visit, there had been problems with their hotel reservation and she had whined him into putting them up at his condo. Four years had passed and his apartment was exactly the same. He didn't like changes so much.

"Hey! How are you doing Bruno?" she asked to the dark-haired man standing in Harvey's kitchen still busy in his cooking.  
"Just fine Miss Paulsen, what a pleasure to see you again!" he replied and then added, turning to Harvey "Dinner is almost ready, I'll serve the aperitif in the terrace, why don't you go and sit there?"  
The night skyline view from Harvey's terrace was breathtaking and she loved that subtle breeze that surrounded her, blowing along the muffled noises of the city. A table had already been set in the left corner of the terrace.  
Bruno came out carrying a bottle in a silver bucket, then poured some Moët & Chandon's prestige cuvée in one of the champagne glasses on the table and handed it to Harvey.  
"Perfect," he said passing the glass back to Bruno after sipping the champagne.  
She leaned against the glass railing, her eyes scanning the night lights.  
"April 9, 2008," she heard Harvey say and turned to face him while he was leaning against the railing at her side.  
"You don't remember, do you?" he asked reading her puzzled expression and handing her a glass of champagne.  
"Should I?"  
"It's the date your parents stayed here, you took that day off."  
She hummed, sipping another drink and wondering how he could remember it.  
"It's also the date you stamped that memo in," he added with emphasis.  
"Wait a sec... Did you just say I wasn't in?"  
"Exactly. I've already checked your time-sheets."  
"But I shredded that memo before you could even see it, how can you tell it had that date stamped on?" she asked.  
"Mike told me. He read it when you handed it over to him in the photocopy room. And Mike's memory is something we both can't question."  
"...sshit..." she uttered after a couple of seconds.  
"The only thing we can question now is who planted it."  
"And why..." she prompted.  
"That's pretty obvious to me: it must have been someone who wanted to thrash me to within an inch of my life and who could easily access the file room. There's only one name that pops into my mind, Donna."  
"Hardman..." she uttered.  
"That son of a bitch," growled Harvey contracting his jaws,"Do you realize what this implies?"  
"He was also maneuvering Tanner..."  
"You bet he was," he said, "it was an easy game for him. But I have to gather proofs before making my moves. Jessica doesn't know what I'm up to, nobody does except you and Mike. There are some documents I want you to go through after dinner."  
"Harvey, dinner is ready," announced Bruno behind them pushing a food trolley.  
They sat down at the table and waited for Bruno to serve the spaghetti all'astice and pour some white wine in their glasses.  
"Everything you'll need is on the trolley, Harvey, if you don't mind I'll go," said Bruno lighting the centerpiece candle.  
"It's okay Bruno, thanks."  
"Miss Paulsen," said Bruno nodding goodbye.  
"See you soon Bruno," she answered.  
As soon as Bruno left the terrace Harvey raised his glass of wine with a smile. "To our can opener..." he said locking eyes with her.  
"To our thumbtacks..." she added mimicking him.  
"May they rest in peace!" they enounced with one voice in a solemn toast, bursting into laughter.  
He leaned in and kissed her softly, his lips a mere invitation.  
"And you think a shy kiss would be enough, Mr. Specter?" she breathed and kissed him deeply, her hand cupping the back of his head and gently drawing him closer.  
"You always get me, Miss Paulsen..." he whispered and returned her passionate kiss while they were both rising from their chairs, their hands searching for each other.  
"What will happen to us, in time, Bullit?" she asked.  
"Time starts now," answered Harvey promptly picking up on the reference.  
Dinner might as well have waited another couple of years.

[_Music: The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) - Windmills of your Mind final variation_]


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Hi Suitors! This is my third post here, I hope you'll enjoy it. Reviews are strongly appreciated.  
Disclaimer: I own nothing.

3.

[_Music: Take It With A Kiss by The Pistolas_]

Sunday, high noon. It was broad daylight in Harvey's bedroom. The faint sound of a song by The Pistolas was coming from the kitchen. Donna was naked, lying on her stomach across his bed, her hands resting under her chin. Her feet were drawing circles in the air, beating time, while she was looking at the high buildings surrounding the apartment.  
Harvey came in carrying a breakfast tray. She smiled at the smell of coffee and turned slightly to observe him with anticipation.  
He laid the tray at her side, sat down on the bed and leaned over to smack her perfect butt.  
She sat down lazily. He handed her a cup of coffee with skim milk, whipped cream and sugar in it, spread a slice of bread with butter and marmalade and raised it to her lips so that she could take a bite. They kept eating silently looking at each other.  
Donna inadvertently spilled some marmalade on her thigh, took it off with one of her fingers and placed it into her mouth, a naughty smile crossing her face.  
He smirked.  
She moved the tray down to the floor and took the marmalade bowl in one hand getting dangerously closer to him.  
"Oh, I love you Donna..." he hissed in a desperate tone surrendering without conditions.  
She stopped abruptly towering above him, the marmalade bowl suspended in mid-air, "Wait... What?"  
He lowered his eyebrows in a scowl, looking alternatively to the marmalade and her face.  
"Oh, c'mon Donna..." he pleaded.  
She kept still, her eyes widening.  
"Donna..." he pleaded again.  
"Say it," she ordered.  
He turned serious meeting her eye.  
"You sneaky gallows bird..." he sneered. Then he took her wrists and pulled them in one hand disarming her of the marmalade.  
"You're gonna ask for mercy..."

.::.

Monday morning, the alarm clock on the sidetable was blinking 6:29AM. Harvey's condo was completely silent apart from a persistent chuckling and blanket swishing.  
Suddenly the alarm went off and Harvey poked his head out from under the blanket cursing in despair.  
"Noo..." she whispered, looking up to his face.  
"Gotta go. Save the world," said Harvey getting up.  
"Oh, I knew you were a keeper, Mr. Specter!" she sighed in admiration, "You'd better go then..."  
"I would if I could only figure out where the hell you threw my red cape yesterday..." he said searching the room for his t-shirt.  
He found the t-shirt hanging off the pendant, grabbed it and pulled it on together with his underpants, leaned in close, kissed her and said "Miss Paulsen, you'd better take a shower with me right now."  
"Mmmm... Does it mean you just realized the world can wait... what made you change your mind so quickly?"  
"Mike will be here in less than one hour and the two of you are gonna go through all the documents I brought here Friday. All Hardman's and Tanner's cases: transcripts, appeals, decisions... You'll be happy to get back to work," he smiled.  
"Oh, you can't even imagine how much I will..." she remarked in a sarcastic tone, "What are we supposed to look for?"  
"Listen, after the inhouse trial run, Mike came up with this idea to go through all Tanner's cases. He was sure Tanner did something illegal because that's who Mike thought he was and he wanted to find it and use it against Tanner so that I could get a better deal. All Mike wanted was to avoid my disbarment..."  
"Now I see... Probably I was the one who gave Mike that idea: the day of the trial run, Mike came over to my place, we had an argument about it and I told him that he shouldn't have trusted Louis because he was who he was. Suddenly something clicked in his mind and he rushed away."  
"Well, apparently Daniel was eager to help Mike in this and immediately found a smoking gun to use against Tanner. One that brought us the settlement we eventually voted for. At first I thought Hardman had helped Mike because he had always be in favor of a settlement. Then, when I realized the memo had been planted I also figured out that getting me disbarred was all Hardman had been dreaming of from day one. So, why did he help Mike?"  
"Because he wanted to stop him going through Tanner's cases..."  
"Exactly. There's something in those cases that connects Daniel to Tanner. I suspect they are old acquaintances. Now I want you and Mike to dig out any connections between those assholes."  
"Yess, my Lord!"

.::.

They were having breakfast in Harvey's kitchen. The bell rang and Harvey went down the corridor to open the door.  
"Jeez, Harvey, you look really exhausted! Did you sleep well?" asked Mike entering Harvey's apartment.  
"Don't ask..." said Harvey while showing Mike in.  
"Donna! I didn't expect to meet you here! How are things?" asked Mike with a surprised look seeing her in the living room.  
"Couldn't be better, Mike," she smiled at him while Harvey was going back behind the counter to finish drinking his coffee.  
"Please, have a seat. Would you like a cup of coffee?" asked Harvey indicating one of the white stools in front of the counter beside Donna.  
Mike noticed she was barefoot and was wearing a sweatsuit that must have been three sizes over hers.  
"Did I... Did I interrupt something?" stammered Mike.  
"Not at all... Why are you asking?" said Harvey with an unflappable face.  
"Just... nothing. But I'll take that cup of coffee," answered Mike while sitting down on one of the stools.  
"Okay now, I gotta go. You two already know what to do... all the documents and filings are over there, in my study. I'll be in the whole morning. I'm gonna tattle about the old days with a good old friend of mine who is still working in the mailing room. And... don't mess around," said Harvey setting his eye on Donna while pronouncing his last sentence.  
"Bye Harvey!" she said batting her eyelashes innocently and smiling at him.  
He winked at her smirking and disappeared down the corridor.


	4. Chapter 4

4.

[_Music: Asaf Avidan - Reckoning song_]

Somebody knocked at her door. She was having a shower and didn't hear it the first time. She heard the second knocking and was already wrapping herself in a white robe when a third loud knocking broke the silence again in her apartment.  
"Hey," said Harvey with a shy smile and a hangdog expression.  
"Hey," said Donna with a big smile, standing in front of him on the threshold.  
Harvey felt so stupid: just a second before he was completely lost and now there she was. He didn't like that... that silly rollercoasting. He didn't like losing control over himself. It was something he had never experienced before. Dizziness and confusion, that was it, till he saw her smile. The only thing that seemed to bring things back to their place. And that was wrong. So wrong he just wanted to yell at her.  
Instead he stepped forward, letting the door shut behind him and getting closer to her. He loosened her robe belt with one hand and touched her stomach feeling her shiver under his hand wide open. Then he grabbed her waist pulling her to him and breathed in her ear "Don't do it again."  
"I wasn't sure you still wanted me there when you were back," she whispered looking him in the eyes.  
"Just... don't." She felt him quiver.  
They stood there in her living room holding in each others arms until their fears were soothed.  
She knew.  
She had finally found the courage to see through him. For years she had been wondering what kind of damage was done to him but deep inside she had always known. Now she was embracing the unspeakable.  
Donna could perceive his interior struggle. His need to love and trust and his shattering dread that any trusting bond would be broken again and again in a perpetual cycle. His pain was as tangible as the body she was holding tightly in her arms.  
Yet, there were her fears. Letting them prevail and running away from his apartment that evening had been so childish.  
She was the one who had to stay strong.  
It didn't matter whether he would tell her. Words become needless when you are naked.  
A cocky badass always dressed with a mocking smile and the most expensive suits who sped through life like men wanted to be with him and women wanted to sleep with him. Yet a cheater, like Mike or his mother. His cards had always been shitty, but he was still sitting at the gambling table, waiting for someone to call his bluff.  
Abuse is a strange word.  
One that could never come to your lips but echo in your mind forever, leaving no room for intimacy.

.::.

Donna woke up in his arms. She started thinking about the last time he had come over at her place. That awful dinner party five years before...

_"What do you want me to say, Donna?"_  
_"Nothing."_  
_"Look, I am who I am..." _  
_"Exactly, and I should have known that. I mean, you have always slept around! But at least you could have spared me that...that... You really don't care, do you?"_  
_"Whatever you say."_

She turned over to face him and softly kissed his eyelids still closed, waking him. She kissed that little mole near his lips.  
"Good morning, Ms. Paulsen," he purred kissing her.  
"Good morning. Why do you always call me Miss Paulsen?"  
"Oh, I hate to skip formalities with a beautiful woman."  
"You should definitely grow a beard, you know, it would look great."  
"I will, Miss Paulsen, but only on two conditions."  
"One is you ask it very gently and show me how important it is for you, I mean, how much you care..."  
"Okay, and the second?"  
"The second is that you come to Paris with me. I've already got two tickets. Flights are next week."  
"Did you? Really?" she asked incredulous, jumping back on her knees.  
"Yep," he smiled.  
"Oh Harvey!"  
She jumped onto him and kissed him deeply.

.::.

"...and when you and Mike phoned me yesterday to tell me what you'd found, I was having a chat with Joe, that old friend of mine working in the mailing room at the firm," said Harvey.  
"Well, it turns out there is no trace of that incoming mail with the memo in their registries," he added while they were having breakfast in her kitchen.  
"I also checked the file room: no security cameras and no locks on the doors. But there are two security cameras in the corridor and in the bullpen... Listen, I spoke to the head of security. He gave me copies of the security footage of the nights following Hardman's arrival at the firm. One of those nights I remember talking to Louis in the bullpen: he was feeling down because of that Harward Law assessment. That same night Hardman accessed the file room from the corridor while Louis was working in the bullpen. I have recordings with both of them. Louis must have heard a noise coming from the file room 'cause all of a sudden he stood up and approached the file room backdoor that opens into the bullpen and peered inside. I think he saw Hardman planting the memo."  
"Louis? ...Jeez!"  
"Yep, that tool! That's why he said he didn't think I'd buried it during the trial run. If only I had known before, we could have asked him a couple of questions more..."  
"What are you going to do about it?" asked Donna.  
"In two days there's gonna be a vote. Hardman called for it after we had settled. Partners will decide between him and Jessica. With the evidence you and Mike have gathered and a signed affidavit from Louis I don't think partners are going to vote for him any more."


End file.
